To ensure adequate financial protection for platform workers in case of work injury, they will be covered under the Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA).
Who is covered
Under WICA, all platform operators are required to provide Work Injury Compensation (WIC) insurance to their platform workers.
Platform workers can make a claim under WICA if they were injured while performing the following tasks for delivery and ride-hail platform operators:
- Pick-up
When the platform worker begins to travel to the pick-up or collection location until the platform worker leaves the pick-up or collection location, including returning to the vehicle, where applicable for delivery platform services.
- Delivery
When the platform worker begins to travel to the drop-off or delivery location until the platform worker leaves the drop-off or delivery location, including returning to the vehicle, where applicable for delivery platform services.
The above tasks apply to delivery and ride-hail platform services.
A platform worker can also make a claim under WICA if the platform worker contracted an Occupational Disease in the course of work.
Scenarios not covered under WICA
As a platform worker, you are not covered under WICA if you injure yourself:
- While not working for a platform operator
- While waiting for tasks, including doing non work-related activities such as running personal errands in between tasks
- While performing tasks under the influence of alcohol or drugs
- Deliberately, or you deliberately aggravated an accidental injury
- In a fight or an assault on one or more persons other than for self-defence or with consent of the platform operator
- While performing tasks using an illegally modified vehicle which caused an accident
- While performing tasks using a vehicle for which you do not hold the appropriate vehicle licence such as a driving or motorcycle licence, or a power-assisted bicycle and e-scooter mandatory theory test certificate
- While performing tasks using an unregistered Personal Mobility Device (PMD)
Types of compensation under WICA
Platform workers will have the same scope and level of WIC benefits as employees including:
- Medical leave wages
- Medical expenses
- Lump sum compensation for permanent incapacity, current incapacity or death
However, compensation for light duties will not apply to platform workers.
Average daily earnings (ADE)
The ADE will be applied to calculate:
- Income loss compensation during medical leave and hospitalisation leave
- Lump sum compensation for permanent incapacity, current incapacity or death
Calculating ADE
The steps to calculate ADE are:
- Determine the platform worker's total gross earnings from all platform operators within the platform service in which the injury was sustained. To determine the total gross earnings, refer to the platform worker's earnings over the lookback period of up to 90 calendar days before the date of accident.
The accident happened on 15 August (Day 0). The lookback period will start from 14 August (Day 1), working backwards for the past 90 calendar days, up to 17 May (Day 90).
If the platform worker started platform work less than 90 calendar days before the date of accident, the lookback period will be based on the actual number of calendar days that the platform worker had worked.
- Total earnings per day = earnings in lookback period across all platform operators / number of days in lookback period
- Apply the Fixed Expense Deduction Amount.
ADE = Total earnings per day x (100% – Fixed Expense Deduction Amount)
| Mode of transport |
Fixed Expense Deduction Amount |
|
|
60% |
- Motorcycles
- Power-assisted bicycles
- Motorised PMDs
|
35% |
- Bicycles
- On foot
- Public transport
|
20% |
Medical leave wages
Compensation for medical leave
| Number of days |
Platform worker gets |
| Up to 14 days |
Full ADE |
| 15th day to 1st year of accident |
2/3 ADE |
Compensation for hospitalisation leave
| Number of days |
Platform worker gets |
| Up to 60 days |
Full ADE |
| 61st day to 1st year of accident |
2/3 ADE |
Medical expenses
Platform operators will be required to pay for medical expenses related to a work accident up to the maximum limit, which is $45,000 or 1 year from the date of the accident, whichever comes first.
Lump sum compensation
Lump sum compensation for permanent incapacity or current incapacity
| When a claim is payable |
When an injury or illness has a permanent effect on a platform worker's ability to work |
| Who receives the compensation |
Injured platform worker |
| How compensation is calculated |
Amount payable = Platform worker's ADE × 30 × age multiplying factor × % permanent incapacity |
| Compensation limits |
- Minimum compensation of $97,000 × (% permanent incapacity)
- Maximum compensation of $289,000 × (% permanent incapacity)
|
Lump sum compensation for death
| When a claim is payable |
When an injury causes death |
| Who receives the compensation |
Family or dependants of deceased platform worker |
| How compensation is calculated |
Amount payable = Platform worker's ADE × 30 × age multiplying factor |
| Compensation limits |
- Minimum compensation of $76,000
- Maximum compensation of $225,000
|
Apportionment of liability
If a platform worker is injured while working for two or more platform operators at the same time, liability will be apportioned through a prioritisation of work tasks:
- If the platform worker was performing both pick-up and delivery tasks at the time of accident, the platform operators that the platform worker was performing delivery tasks for will be liable.
- If the platform worker was only performing pick-up or delivery tasks at the time of accident, all platform operators that the platform worker was working for when injured will be liable.
If there is only 1 platform operator liable after the prioritisation of work tasks, this platform operator will be liable.
If more than 1 platform operator is liable after the prioritisation of work tasks, liability will be apportioned among all liable platform operators. Each platform operator's share of liability is determined by the ratio of the platform worker's earnings with that platform operator, to the platform worker's earnings among all liable platform operators over the lookback period.
Determine earnings to be used for compensation
Compensation will be based on the platform worker's earnings from the platform sector in which the injury was sustained:
| If the liable platform operators are |
Total compensation due |
From the same platform service
|
Based on platform worker's total earnings from the service in lookback period
|
From both the ride-hail and delivery services
|
Based on platform worker's total earnings from the higher earning service in the lookback period
|
The total compensation includes earnings across multiple platform operators that the platform worker worked for within that platform service.
Mr Lim is a private-hire car driver who also does goods delivery platform work. Sometimes when he needs to go to a collection point to pick up goods for delivery, he might also be ferrying a ride-hail passenger going to the same area. One day, he got into an accident while going to pick up a ride-hail passenger, and concurrently going to collect a parcel for delivery.
As he was performing pick-ups for both ride-hail and delivery platform work, both ride-hail and delivery platform operators will be liable for his work injury compensation.
During the lookback period, he earned $3,000 from ride-hail work, and $500 for delivery work, totalling $3,500. Liability for work injury compensation will be apportioned between the two platform operators:
- Ride-hail platform operator's liability is $3,000/$3,500=85.7%
- Delivery platform operator's liability is $500/$3,500=14.3%
Mr Lim's work injury compensation will be computed based on his earnings of $3,000 from ride-hail work as it is the higher earning service.
When a work accident occurs, where safe and when possible, you should:
- Take note of the accident time and location, for example the street name, lamp post number, or the exact location in the shopping mall.
- Take photos of the accident site, including your damaged vehicle, the other vehicle's details if there was collision, the vicinity of the accident site, or any injuries sustained.
- Take down the contact details of witnesses if there are any.
- Retrieve supporting information from the platform app or website to show which work task you were at during the time of the accident.
- Seek medical help.
- Inform your platform operators of the work accident as soon as possible.
- Cooperate with your platform operators and their insurers to provide supporting documents, such as the original medical certificates, medical reports, medical bills, or photographs of the accident to facilitate WIC claim processing.
The platform worker will be notified of their work injury claim after the platform operator has given notice of the accident to MOM and the relevant platform operator's insurer. The notification will include the case reference number and the insurer's details. The platform worker can check the status of the claim online.
An injury report (iReport) is deemed as a WIC claim. Before filing the iReport, you should perform first level checks on the injury sustained by the platform worker and retrieve the platform worker’s earnings. Key info required in the iReport includes:
Work relatedness of accident
- Job records of the platform worker, such as the work task the platform worker was at when the accident occurred
- Platform service the platform worker was performing work in when the accident occurred
Details of the injured platform worker
- Date of the platform worker’s first completed task with you
- Total earnings that the platform worker made with you during the lookback period
- Mode of transport used by the platform worker when the accident occurred and during the lookback period
Injury details
- Whether the accident resulted in hospitalisation
- Number of days of medical and hospitalisation leaves
- Hospital or clinic that the platform worker was treated at which could be retrieved from the medical documents provided by the platform worker
- Details of the injury such as the body part that was injured and the type of injury
Accident details
- Ensure that the time and location of the accident reported by the platform worker matches your task records
When and how should platform operators file an injury report
| For fatal accidents |
|
| For non-fatal accidents |
- Submit an iReport within 10 days of notification of accident.
- Platform workers can claim compensation within one year of accident, or up to the limitation period of the Occupational Disease even if they no longer work for the platform operator.
|
Platform operators can use their Corppass to log in to manage their WIC claims.